Citywide Faberge Egg Hunt to Feature Local Brooklyn Artist

Pic from Jannell Turner's Website

It's that time of year again where floppy-ass bunnies pop up everywhere, pastels are sorta acceptable, and I throw my blood sugar into a pre-diabetic tail spin by stuffing my face with Cadbury's line of deliciously sweet eggs both Cream and Mini. Or as most of the real world knows it: Easter.  Besides diabetes and frightening anthropomorphic bunnies, did you know there's a new Easter tradition about to begin in NYC?  Faberge, those people who make the uber fancy eggs that are just begging to be broken, is hosting a ginormous city-wide Easter egg hunt, aptly called The Big Egg Hunt.

So I think this actually sounds kind cool: Faberge has commissioned a bunch of well-known artists, designers, and photographers including Jeff Koons,  Bruce Weber, Julian Schnabel, Carolina Herrera, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and others to design 250 eggs and which will then be hidden all over the city. They'll be in Brooklyn too and you can find them. You have to download an app and blah blah. If you see an egg you like, you can even buy it when they're all going to be auctioned off for charity at Sotheby's on April 22. 

The even cooler news is that a local Gowanus artist by the name of Jannell Turner was picked as one of the artists. Turner was honored to be picked from an applicant pool of thousands to paint an egg. Turner has a fascination with forests and uses them as her muse. As she describes it, "In my work, I explore psychological emotions associated with being inside the woods. Enchantment, innocence and danger." She says she used to retreat to the woods in her childhood to contemplate the world around her. Now in her Gowanus studio she paints these woods and as it's been described, "her paintings never stray too far from the forests of her childhood." 

Turner is also co-developer of the Brooklyn Art Space, and debuted with a nearly sold-out show at the space's Trestle Gallery last October. As she was finishing up her forest-covered egg, Turner said, "I'm excited to be able to share my work with citywide audience."

Check out this video of her painting the egg:

The Big Egg Hunt is going on from now until April 26. All proceeds from the auctioned off eggs and merchandise go to Elephant Family devoted to protected endangered elephants in Asia and Studio in Schools whose mission is to bring arts education to under served inner-city kids in New York City.